This picture is from the New York Times today as today is election day. I love the image. Something new I learned about this always-keeping-ya-guessing of a country is that there is an "electoral law" that alcohol cannot be sold on an election weekend. Because they don't want people to get liquored up and forget to vote? Because they don't want people to get liquored up and vote for the wrong person by accident? I don't know. I just don't think they should punish foreigners this way. Not me, just, you know, others.

Guatemala has another rule about campaigning - there's a spending limit. The leading candidate for Prez went over that limit more than double, according to reports. On the radio today he was interviewed and the interviewer said, So you went over the spending limit, to which he replied, Yep I believe I did. I read another article about how in Guatemala's recent election history the candidate who spends the most wins. So ex-military man Otto Perez Molina and his party went over the limit by a lot and, well, so what? Not like he's gonna get punished, he's gonna win. Lame.

Tomorrow there should be results of the election. Best case scenario, in my mind, is that there's a run-off in November between the likely to win ex-gen and 2nd place Manuel Baldizon - who I nickname "Maldición." Either way, meh. People are excited though, or totally bummed. Andres and his mom did not vote. They are registered to vote in their municipality waaay up north so they can't vote here in Antigua. Plus, to them, it's like, which bad apple to pick? The wormy one? The moldy one? The mushy one? Mmm... so many choices, nothing looks good.

Voting must be done in one's own municipality. There were many reports today of folks blocking roads into their towns so that others wouldn't come and cast votes for whoever was paying them to vote for them in another municipality. They burned ballots of suspected folks "not from around there" who were likely paid to come vote for whichever corrupt candidate. Basically, your run of the mill Guatemalan shenanigans. This paragraph didn't really make sense, sorry, I hope you get the idea: shenanigans.

Also, because many rural folks had to get out and vote there were a few bad accidents reported in rural areas. Overloaded trucks full of voters crashing. And people from up where Andres is from denounced the fact that the polling stations were manned by gun-toting military soldiers. This was a very hard-hit region from the civil war, lots of military presence. Voting with a man with a gun behind you isn't, well shouldn't be, right after the signing of the peace accords.

When Andres tells me about the electoral climate here I always need to hear it twice, or three times. It is really a testament to where I come from - I'm allowed to vote, in peace, without being hassled, without having to travel for hours along dangerous rural roads, without fear my ballot will be discarded. Even though I've spent a few years here, it's still hard to wrap some things around this noggin of mine.